The Genius Guide to the Templar (PFRPG) PDF (based on
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The templar is a divine warrior—an agent and crusader for his god and (possibly) his church. Most are champions of a religious order, using their faith to gird them against the plots of heretics, infidels, and pagans. Others are devoted to a specific holy duty, perhaps one that has been entrusted to their family for generations. Although clerics are servants of their gods and paladins, in different lands they might be called bannerets, champions, gallants, kirks, or warders.
Although different templars express their powers of faith in different ways, they all share the ability to drive themselves further because of this faith. Some of the powers they gain through their unflinching faith are extensions of their normal talents, while others are mystic powers not unlike the divine gifts of clerics and paladins.
The personality and training of a templar is influenced by the dogma to which he subscribes. Those who ascribe to a religion with requirements for charity, chastity, and truthfulness might seem saintlike, while those who worship a care-free earth mother might appear far less chaste and knightlike. Templars conform closely to their faith’s ideal, making them stereotypical examples of their culture. Some make no effort for such conformity, however, becoming brooders who do their duty grimly, even when in service to gods of love and joy. Often templars of this kind see themselves as buffers who do the unpleasant tasks required by their position so others need not take on such burdens.
Templars do well as primary front-line melee combatants. Although they lack the rage of barbarians or the broad range of combat skills of fighters, templars’ powers of conviction compensate well for these lacks. They can function anywhere a fighter could, and might aid party members in ways a fighter cannot. A templar traveling with a cleric of the same faith might well see himself as the cleric’s guardian, though templars of warrior gods are just as likely to stand aside in combat, to allow the cleric to prove worthiness of their martial deities’ respect.
Templar vs. Paladin
So, what’s the difference between a templar and a paladin? It’s twofold, and the first is easy to explain. Although a paladin is an exemplar of the forces of good and law, a templar is an agent of divine will closer in scope and concept to a cleric. Any god can have templars, and chaotic good, true neutral, and even lawful evil templars are just as common (possibly even more so) as lawful good examples of the class. The grim warlord who conquers cities for the god of war, the battlefield hospitaller who escorts healers for the god of healing, and the insane pyromaniac determined to burn the world for the god of madness and fire are all examples of templars, though none could possibly qualify as paladins.
That naturally leads to asking what the crucial difference between a paladin and a lawful good templar is, which touches on the second major difference between the two classes. Put simply, templars are not held to the same standards as paladins, by either their order or their gods. Paladins must follow a strict code of conduct. This code is not just a requirement of their order, it’s a crucial part of how they gain their power. No matter how reasonable or forgivable a paladin’s violation of this code might be, it results in a loss of divine power until the paladin atones. If a paladin uses poison to destroy a great evil, even if no other option seemed to exist and the evil had to be destroyed, that paladin loses her divine powers until she atones. A paladin is not even required to worship a god (or similar philosophic concept) as a cleric is. It seems reasonable then to say that it’s not a god that gives a paladin her power, it’s the dedication to order and righteousness required of a paladin, and this is why there is no such thing as paladins of other alignments. Only a lawful good character can remain so purely dedicated to a specific set of rules as to gain supernatural power from doing so.
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This pdf is 12 pages long, 2/3 of a page front cover, 1 page SRD and credits, leaving 10 1/3 pages of content for the Templar, so let’s check out what the class is all about.
After a brief discussion on the nature of Templars and e.g. Paladins, we are introduced to the class. What are Templars, you ask? Well, they are warriors of a given faith, not necessarily a good or even lawful one, but just any kind of faith and are not beholden to as high moral standards as Paladins. Think of them as the clerics of fighters – devout, yes, but they don’t necessarily have to adhere to a strict moral code. All the people who don’t like codices can take deep breath now. ;)
On to the class: The Templar gets a whopping d12, full BAB, a good fort-save, 4+Int skills per level. The defining two class features of a Templar, though, are the order and faithful talents. The order of a templar usually is determined at character creation – one order per domain a deity has access to.
Each order grants a Templar access to either a bonus skill that becomes a class-skill for the Templar or a bonus feat as well as an order-related special ability that ranges from healing touch to the ability to strengthening certain structures they defend. 34 orders are presented (unless I miscounted) and at higher levels Templars get access to more orders of their deity, learn domain spells associated with their order(s) or get ranger-like foes of certain kinds of unfaithful.
The 10 faithful talents Templars can choose from can be divided in two categories –rather straightforward ones (e.g. proficiency in tower shields and heavy armor) and mantras, of which only one can be active at a given time. Mantras grant minor bonuses or make the Templar immune to e.g. fear while reciting them.
The pdf closes with 3 feats, one to improve domain-usage, access to a domain aligned with your order or the ability to use two mantras at once.
Conclusion:
Editing is top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitch. There’s a formatting error, though, a line that misses a break. Layout adheres to the full-color, 3-column standard. There are no bookmarks here. I bought this book and thought: Hell yeah, holy warriors for everyone! *puts2 bucks into the bad pun jar* Ähem. The mechanic execution of the Templar base-class is a concise and precise as you have come to expect from SGG – however, I nevertheless couldn’t shake a distinct feeling of lack after reading it and thinking long and hard, I’ve come to realize which components of this class actually bug me: The first one would be that the assortment of faithful talents is rather small and their execution lackluster and not too exciting when e.g. compared to shadow assassin, war master, witch hunter etc. The second one would be the orders. While I’m wholly aware that support for all domains would be too much to ask, I would have loved for the concept of subdomains or other domains to at least get some guidelines to design them myself. Furthermore, the domains just feel bland in their presentation and predictable in most of the abilities they grant. When compared to e.g. the domains in Secrets of the Divine Channeler, another domain-centric class, the Templar falls short not due to length, but due to the sheer fact that a bit of fluff here and there, at least some short sentence, can go a long way. Giving Templars of the destruction order the weapon quality “vicious” for their strikes does not constitute an exciting ability in my book. All in all, it’s a well-executed class that somehow, ironically lacks soul – fluff could possibly have made this an excellent book – as written, it’s average and my final verdict will be 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 for the purpose of this platform.
The templar fills a niche for holy warriors that are not necessarily paladins. Personally, I see it replacing paladins in my campaigns.
First off, the templar is a strong, well balanced, warrior class designed to give any church/temple an order of defenders. The various match domains, so it would be pretty straight forward to make a new order for a new domain, should you need to for your campaign. The class features, as a whole, seem to emulate what a faith based fighting class should be. They are resolute in their dedication to their faith. Overall, any problems I have is more along the lines of, I'm not sure I would have done it this way." I still find it very well balanced & worthy of inclusion in just about any campaign.
This product is 12 pages long. It starts with a cover and introduction (1 pages)
Next it gets into the differences between a Templar and Paladin. Which in short is, a Paladin upholds a set of ideal's and virtues, namely that of Law and Good and follow a strict code of conduct. Templars are merely the martial arm of the church, sure they are religious by the do what they must for the church. Meaning a templar can do things a Paladin couldn't for the greater good, there moral code is a lot more gray than the black and white paladin code. Plus they can be of any alignment and worship any god. There is of course mechanical differences as well. (9 ½ pages)
Templar – D12, 4 skills, full BaB, all weapons, light/medium armor, all shields but tower.
Templar Order – Each domain has a order assigned to it, each one grants a class skill and one power.
Faithful Talent – Works like rogue talents but all divine in nature.
Temple Bond – They have 3 choices, gain a new order, able to cast some domain spells, or gain a bonus to some skills and combat against a alignment opposed to her god.
Curse Resistance – bonus to saves against curses.
Resolute – can partially ignore command spells and powers each round.
Master Templar – gains another order and it does not need match a domain of her god, can also grant allies divine powers.
Feats (½ page)
There is 3 new feats. One can be used by clerics as well the other two just enhance aspects of the templar.
It ends with a OGL. (1 page)
Closing thoughts. The templar is a interesting class, it is a divine warrior that is more interested in doing what they believe to be their gods wishes than being a shining example of their gods beliefs. So they will do things their gods don't approve of, if they believe it is in the best interest of their god. I am sure some players that like the idea of paladins but hate how strict their code is, will like playing these. I on the other hand think they will make great NPC's. I have already thought of a great villain who works for a good god, but does questionable things, a villain that believes they are doing the right thing.
The art is a mixed bag, some is meh, some is good, some color, some B&W. Editing and layout are top notch. My only real critic is while I like the class, I wish a few things had been done differently. Namely I wish the orders had been expanded and played a much larger part in the templar than they had, plus I would have liked the orders to have been disconnected from the domains. Yes I know that would be treading on the toes of the cavalier then, but not to much if they had all been divine orders. In fact that is kinda what I was hoping for. More of a divine inspired cavalier. The orders they have is ok, but I would have rather the name had been changed to something like divine focus and left in. Anyways all and all it is a good class, just not exactly what I was hoping for. So I am giving this a 4 star, the class is good but I felt could have been better.
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